Devaroe Lawrence might be Cleveland Browns Defensive MVP

The Cleveland Browns needed depth on the interior of their defensive line and Devaroe Lawrence has delivered

Devaroe Lawrence has come out of nowhere to become a dominant player in the preseason l, and is arguably the biggest star of the preseason for the Cleveland Browns. As always, you have to take the preseason with a grain of salt, but Lawrence has performed at an incredible level when given the chance.

He has four sacks on the preseason, leading the team. His seven tackles led the Browns defensive linemen. Needless to say, it is unusual for a defensive tackle to lead the team in sacks. The 6-2, 295-pound defensive tackle has spent the entire preseason in the other team’s backfield, overpowering the offensive linemen in his path.  Plus he has dominated in all four exhibition games, proving that it is not a fluke.

In the fourth exhibition, Lawrence picked up a sack and a tackle-for-loss. He also drew a holding penalty and spent most of his reps in the Detroit backfield.  Several times he caused Detroit Lions quarterback Tom Savage to either hurry his pass or to simply throw the ball away. Those plays do not show up in the box score, but are also big plays. To make a long story short, Lawrence was unstoppable in the last preseason game.

In his postgame press conference, coach Freddie Kitchens was complimentary:

"“I was very impressed with Devaroe. He carried over what he did in practice to the game. With him you know what you are getting and I like that.”"

Lawrence was a late addition to the Browns in 2018, via a Dorsey trade with the New Orleans Saints, for a mere seventh round draft pick. He got into one game and spent most of the season on the practice squad. He was not expected to make the team this year. The arithmetic has changed, however. He caught the eye of new defensive coordinator Steve Wilks and his staff with big plays early on in practice, and they have continued in the exhibition games.

In fact, Jeff Schudel of The News Herald claims that Freddie Kitchens chided the offensive linemen early in camp “You guys can’t block this guy.”  Lawrence did not realize at first that Kitchens was singling him out for praise. Well, it turns out the Kitchens was not kidding. The Lions O-Line could not block him either.

Still, when the regular season starts next week, Sheldon Richardson and Larry Ogunjobi are the entrenched starters. While  Lawrence has been incredibly exciting playing against second and third string, there is no question that he will start the season as second string.

However, unlike their offensive line counterparts, second string defensive linemen often get significant game snaps, especially if they are as destructive as Lawrence.  Number 99 will be heard from this year.